Composing a Curriculum - Jim Burke

The idea of actually composing a curriculum is one of the most exciting and terrifying things about becoming a future educator. I've learned a bit about composing unit plans and lesson plans in some of my education classes, but that's fairly easy because I'm not actually applying it to real, walking, talking, breathing children. It's easy to just hand it to a professor and check some stuff off of a rubric... but actually composing lesson plans, unit plans and whole curriculums for people who depend on you for learning is absolutely nerve wrecking. Luckily Jim Burke's piece, "Composing a Curriculum" momentarily gave my anxiety about lesson planning a run for its money. 

The idea of beginning with the end in mind, so that you've established a goal to reach has been incredibly enlightening. It reminded me a lot of when we were talking about essay writing in class earlier this semester. We had a whole conversation as a class about how difficult it is to come up with a thesis statement at the start of an essay, and how much easier it is to come up with one once you've written your essay and elaborated on the topic a bit. The same rule applies to unit and lesson planning, and I think that having an end-goal in mind is absolutely essential to making a cohesive unit or lesson plan that actually flows and gets the point across without deviating from what you're ultimately trying to achieve. 

Timing is perhaps my biggest fear because I've always been the kind of person who tries to pack too many things in too little a space...but Burke talks the importance of timing, and that more isn't necessarily better. In a standard 45 minute classroom, every second count and time management is a skill that needs to be acquired quickly to maximize efficiency and learning. I know that the first year or so of teaching is always the hardest, because I've had numerous teachers tell me how much they struggled, especially with time management. I may not get it right, right away...but Burke made some suggestions like using the first 5 to 10 minutes of the class to get student's minds into gear, either by asking questions or recapping what they learned during the previous class. Then, ideally, the rest of the class time will be used to focus on actual unit work like reading, a writing workshop, a worksheet group work, etc. Then, the last few minutes of class should be used to make sure that the students understand the work they've done and the purpose it serves them. It is a time for questions or further elaboration. In another one of my education classes, "exit slips" were suggested as a valuable tool for the end of a class, lesson, or unit so that each individual student's understanding of the topic discussed can be evaluated. 

Everything I read in this article was just a refresher from the ESC 422 class I took with you (Professor Ochoa).

Here is a sample of a Lesson Plan I made for my ESC 422 education class on Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

The Five-Paragraph You-Know-What

My earliest memory of the five-paragraph you-know-what happened in fifth grade. We were the big kids of the school and we were expected to write as such. 9/11 was still a fresh memory and naturally, we were asked to write about how it affected us and our experience with the whole ordeal. A lot of parents didn't want my fellow classmates to write about something this complicated or write an entire five-paragraph you-know-what. 

I overheard a lot of kids telling each other what their parents had been saying. 

"How do you expect a ten year old to be able to write this much about such a complicated issue?"

"I never even told my kids about what really happened!" 

I remember my mom being a little apprehensive about this assignment, and reassuring me that she'd help because she was so sure that I'd struggle with it.

My teacher got his way, and I remember being excited about this new fancy grown up assignment. We even had to put it on a floppy disc (wow we've come far) and submit it to a writing contest where you'd win $100, that was such a huge deal to me. I felt like those cool college kids I saw on MTV's The Real World. 

I was ready. 

It was straight to the point, introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. I thought I aced it and that I would win the contest for sure. Maybe buy a new doll house with the money, a swimming pool for Barbie and Ken.

I didn't win. And from that point on essays just became a symbol of disappointment for me. 

Once sixth grade rolled around, writing from our own perspective was frowned upon and I failed my first middle school essay because I had used "I" too many times. 

"You can't write in first person. That means you can't say "I" in your essays or mention yourself or your opinion"

The red marks all over my essay were discouraging.

"I didn't know that! No one ever told me. I did great on the last essay I wrote and I used I! My last teacher said it was ok!!" 

I got to rewrite it, but my grade didn't improve much because I was so sure I was right and my teacher was evil. As much as I loved words, books, and writing...this whole essay thing was not my forte.

To this day, I still struggle with essays. I do quite well on them, and I'm often consulted to help others with theirs. I've mastered the structure of essays, and although my collegiate essays surpass five paragraphs they are still very reminiscent of the black and white, factual, straight to the point essays that were drilled into my brain the years before my English regents exam. I got a 98 on my regents exam and always did well in English classes but the creativity was completely lost for me.

It always made me laugh how my teachers would tell me "your thesis statement should grab the reader's attention!" and "your first paragraph should make the reader want to keep reading!" 

How could I make such boring topics sound so interesting? All of my essays were basically just reiterating the obvious in every adolescent book, play, or story we read. 

As a future teacher of writing, it worries me that I'm going to fall into the same trap that was set for me when I was a middle/high school student. 

In Christensen's Essay With an Attitude she says,

"I've never found a five-step Betty Crocker boxed essay recipe. Because students don't all learn the same way or enter my class with the same background knowledge or confidence, I need to teach essay writing rather than assign it"

I hope that I can do the same in my future classroom and let students get personal with their writing. Inciting their emotions and allowing them to break free of the typical five-paragraph you-know-what.

Of course it's important to teach students how to write these typical five paragraph essays with an introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs and a conclusion that summarized the thesis. Because as Romano says, students have to be able to do this to get their "ticket", and once they are "ticket holders" they can have a little more artistic freedom over how they choose to write.

If standardized testing is still around when I begin teaching, it'll be my duty to make sure that students can perform up to the "standards". However, it would be ideal for both the students and myself to give them creative freedom on how they choose to submit their writing assignments. 

It would be beneficial to students to write more essays like Leslie's Understanding Dad in Romano's The Five-Paragraph You-Know-What, and much less boring for me as the teacher (lol).

Memoir

Atwell's "Call Home the Child: Memoir" was such an enjoyable read for me, and probably one of those most entertaining. So entertaining in fact, that I didn't even realize how much information I was retaining that'll help me as an ELA educator. As we've been discussing throughout the course of this class, we cannot be teachers of writing unless we are writers ourselves, so I've decided to dedicate this particular blog post to writing a memoir just as some of the students did in the article.

Names have been changed because I don't have anyone's consent and don't want to embarrass anyone because this is a public blog.

Backbone

At twelve years old, it finally happened. I walked into first period, miserable as usual, afraid of what the day would bring for me. The teasing was relentless, but I had not grow used to it. How could you ever get used to such a thing? That day was different though, and in retrospect, that should have made me suspicious rather than happy. I sat down at my desk in the front of the classroom, and no one shouted "Hey ugly!", no one threw paper balls into my hair, no one seemed to notice me and a huge sense of relief washed over me. I was done trying to fit in with the cool kids, who were also the bad ones, and it felt good to be invisible in that kind of atmosphere. It was the calm before the storm.

A group of girls who were all best friends were quieter than usual in every class, and I thought that maybe they'd finally gotten in trouble, or finally felt bad for everything they'd said and done to me, maybe they'd gotten bored and moved on to someone else, but instead...they were plotting, plotting something far, far worse than their typical, taunting, annoying behavior. 

Third period science class came around, and oh cruel fate, we had a substitute. I was sitting alone just listening to my new Evanescence CD and I heard a loud "Hey Zayna come sit with us!" I turned around, only to see this group of girls smiling at me and waving over. I took off my headphones nervously, my hands shaking, my heart racing, but with optimism that maybe they'd grown to like me? Perhaps they wanted to apologize? That's certainly what it seemed like. They were engaging in normal teenage conversation about cute boys and how much they hated their teachers, they urged me for my opinion and the feeling of wanting to fit in suddenly remerged, stronger than ever before, electrifying my senses and turning me into someone I wasn't. 

"Michael is so cute! And I hate Mrs. Ashely (our math teacher) and Mr. Jackson (our history teacher)

"Why don't you talk to Michael? He said he thinks you're pretty too!" said a very confident, outspoken girl named Joanna. "Actually, you know what? I'll talk to him for you!"

"No that's ok" I said shyly, but little did I know, they continued to weave me into their little web. 

Fourth period came around and I even got to sit with them during lunch. Sitting at the "cool" table during lunch was the Middle School equivalent of witting the lottery for me. But then it got a little awkward. Michael came up to our table with his friends and I got nervous. Joanna blurted out "Zayna said she likes you why don't you ask her out?!" My face went red and my body felt like I was lit on fire. I did't like Michael, I just agreed with the overall consensus that he was cute. Michael and his friends took one look at me and laughed so hard. The tears of humiliation were coming on strong, but a girl named Tiffany asked me to borrow a dollar.

"Can I borrow a dollar for a bagel I left my money on the bus this morning. I'll pay you back tomorrow"

"Sure, but I only have a five"

"I'll only use a dollar"

But Tiffany came back with four bagels and a bag of chips that she gave to Joanna, Mary, and Octavia. I hadn't eaten and was too nervous to ask for my money back to buy lunch.

"Can I have my four dollars?"

"What are you talking about? You gave me that money and now you want it back?" Tiffany said

"I thought you only needed a dollar..."

"Don't tell me what I said, I'll smack you"

I got up from the table and walked toward the exit of the lunch room only to be greeted by Michael and his posse, laughing at me and calling me "mad ugly" I yelled at them and told them Joanna was lying, and Michael came up to me angrily telling me I better watch who I was talking to "or else"

I had more guts talking back to boys, even though they were stereotypically stronger.

"You're talking shit because you act like I won't beat your ass, ugly"

He was five inches away from my face and all the rage in the world made its way into my body. I pushed him away with such force that I heard my shoulder pop a little. I've never been in a physical fight before, and the thrill of it excited me. He charged at me, but I was ready. He went to grab my shoulders and I elbowed him i the stomach. I grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed, which I'd witnessed a girl do a few months ago in a fight on stairwell 5. I punched his back repeatedly, and his friends ran away laughing. 

"What the hell are you doing!" a voice said from ten feet away

It was Mr. Jackson, the history teacher I hated. He must have been on hall duty. He ripped Michael out of my grip and called security. All of that rage turned into fear. My mind raced.

"Did I just beat up a BOY?"

"Am I gonna get suspended?"

"He attacked me!" 

"This was a set up!"

I explained my story with tears streaming down my face, and Michael was suspended for five days. I was spared from suspension, detention, or any type of punishment. Security reviewed the camera's recordings and my side of the story matched up.

That was probably the most scarily satisfying thing I did in Middle School. I went back to school the next day feeling more confident than ever. Joanna, Mary, Tiffany and Octavia were waiting for me in first period to berate me on why I had gotten Michael suspended.

"I hit him because he deserved it, and he got suspended because he deserved it. Leave me alone and don't bother me"

I got called ugly numerous times that day. Pulled paper balls out of my hair, had my headphones stolen so I couldn't listen to music, and was harassed all day. I realized I could deal with the harassment because it was far, far better than associating with bullies. One day with them almost got me injured and suspended

I'm thankful though. My bullies gave me a backbone.

The "Right" Way To Write...

While reading Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them, I found myself nodding along throughout the entire text and responding to certain things as if we were having a conversation. This is obviously the work of a great writer because it's not easy to get someone to engage in that way, especially when the text isn't exactly being read for leisure. I like how she began chapter one with a quote, it immediately reminded me of the quote at the top of our syllabus. This is something I'd like to do once I'm a teacher as well because I think that it could potentially inspire students if they're at the top of an assignment or worksheet of some sort. It can also open the door to different writers because if they like a certain quote, they may research the author and read some of his or her works. Ultimately it's my goal to get my future students reading and writing so I think that'll be a good tactic. 

As an future ELA teacher, I know there will be a lot of required reading depending on the school I'm in, and also a lot of test prep. Despite the possibility that I will not be in charge of what I'd like to do in an ELA classroom, I want to avoid having my students feel like Patrick Haine, the student that Penny mentions in chapter one as losing his love of books due to required reading and the stress of writing the right way. English is such a creative subject, and unfortunately sometimes our formal educations don't really give students room to explore their creativity. In high school, the only chance I got at creative writing was over the summer when I got a scholarship for a writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. It was one of the greatest weeks of my life and one of my fondest adolescent memories. Even though I was in school for a week during my Summer vacation, I enjoyed it more than lounging by the pool or going to the beach or sleeping in until 1PM and eating ice cream for dinner. I wished that my English class the following school year would be what I had experience at Sarah Lawrence, but I went back in September only to be bombarded with research papers and regents prep...it was depressing, discouraging and frustrating because I knew all the glory of what an English classroom would be, and I felt as though I was being punished for living in a city with a terrible school district, or deprived of creativity so I could fit a societal mold that placed far too much importance on grades rather than innovation and ingenuity. To this day, people still look down on me when I tell them I'm an English major.

"Oh you must have a lot of time on your hands..."

"Are you sure you want to do that? You'll never find a job..."

"Oh, so you're gonna be a teacher? You better marry someone rich!"

"That's unrealistic you can't build a life if you're reading all day..."

It's sad that even in an English classroom, some kids can still feel like both Patrick Haine, and myself. Patrick says, 

"My childhood love of books fizzled when I entered junior high—all of a sudden I was in an environment where I had hours and hours of required reading, so much home- work about boring subjects that I had no time to read what I wanted to read. With this went the writing—we never had “freewrite” time anymore, I always had to try to write what the teacher wanted, the “right” thing, what needed to be done for the grade. Creativity was gone. This repression of creativity continued until my senior year in high school."

It's sad that both Patrick and I had to wait until college to be able to truly apply our love of reading in an academic environment. 

Writing is art. How fulfilled would a painter feel if they were asked to draw a cat over and over and over with no variations. Whiskers can't be purple. Fur can't be green. A three eyed cat? Nope. This is what's happening to too many students in their English classrooms. They are being told what to write and how to write most of the time, and although it is beneficial in certain aspects, it can't dominate the curriculum or we're going to create a generation of people who could care less about the ART of reading and writing. The world needs more creative people, therefor the world needs more creative educators, more Penny Kittle's. I want to be a Penny Kittle.

Although everything I read really resonated with me, the opening chapter is what truly inspired me. It related a lot to what we are learning in this classroom. For instance, Patrick admires the fact that Penny had written a book...that she was a published author. This is SO important because as teachers of writing, WE NEED TO WRITE. This is why we are blogging. This is why we are keeping writer's notebooks, so the future Patrick's in our classroom can look at us and have their love of reading return to them like a waking limb. I really hope that I teach at a school where I'm allowed to encourage students to embrace their own literacy instead of making them agree with a standard opinion. 

I know this has nothing to do with the article, but my sister just took her English Regents exam and had to obviously write an argument essay either agreeing or disagreeing with a series of articles about Monsanto and GMO's... this absolutely enraged me, because there is overwhelming evidence on how GMO's cause cancer and other health problems. But what did my sister do? She found it was easier for her to agree with GMO's in her essay because the articles they provided for her were completely biased. The ulterior motives of that entire regents exam were frightening and disgusting in my opinion because they sought to brainwash, and despite the fact that my sister is smart, she could not find a way to argue against GMO's in a way that didn't threaten her grade. I mean, why is NY state seeking to brainwash students through an ENGLISH exam? Because essays require critical thinking and if they can get students to write using their own words and their own brains and pulling information from articles that can apply to the essay, they are complying with whatever horrifying agenda Monsanto has to get us to be ok with genetically modified food... but I digress. 

Students should be learning how to exercise their creativity and develop their own literacy, critical approach to dissecting literature, and writing in a way that helps them express themselves...rather than with fear of getting it right. Yes students need to know how to be grammatically correct, spell correctly, speak correctly, etc...but they also need to know that that isn't all there is in the world of academic literacy. Just because it's academic doesn't mean it should be any less stimulating...I hope my future students look forward to reading and writing in my class. I hope the schools that have strict curriculums become less rigid and more creative. Creative doesn't mean that less is being learned...there needs to be a balance between what will help them thrive in today's society, and what will develop them as individuals.